Just because the bass and guitar happened to hit the root a beat before
the singer's stylistic scoop got to the correct pitch... why does this
mean
there's something that needs autotuned, moved in time or otherwise
'fixed'?

It doesn't. When I autotune, my number one priority is to preserve the
performance. I despise vocal tracks that have been tuned with the straight
line method... or anything remotely like it.

-S